This
precious little baby was murdered by abortion. Her mother brought her
to a place so that she could have her killed. Since as many as 80% of
the women who murder their babies profess to be a part of the visible
church of Jesus Christ, must must wonder, did anyone tell this baby's
mother "
God says: '
You shall not murder"'?
Would those in her church tell her that God forbids the shedding of
innocent blood? Even if she went to a crisis pregnancy center, would she
have heard the four words of the commandment: '
You shall not murder'?
God has given His Law out of His kindness and yet, so few professing Christians are willing to share them. RC Sproul explains
the threefold use of the Law:
The first purpose of the Law
is to be a mirror... [It] reflects and mirrors the perfect
righteousness of God. ..The law illumines human sinfulness.
Augustine wrote,
“The Law orders, that we, after attempting
to do what is ordered, and so feeling our weakness under the
Law, may learn to implore the help of grace.”...The Law acts as a severe schoolmaster who drives us to Christ.
A second purpose for the Law is the
restraint of evil.
The law, in and of itself, cannot change human hearts. It can,
however, serve to protect the righteous from the unjust.
Calvin says this purpose is
“by means of its fearful
denunciations and the consequent dread of punishment, to curb
those who, unless forced, have no regard for rectitude and justice.” The law allows for a limited measure of justice on this earth, until the last judgment is realized.
The third purpose of the Law
is to reveal what is pleasing to God. As born-again children
of God, the law enlightens us as to what is pleasing to our
Father, whom we seek to serve. The Christian delights in the law
as God Himself delights in it. Jesus said,
“If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John
14:15). This is the highest function of the Law, to serve as an
instrument for the people of God to give Him honor and glory.
By
studying or meditating on the law of God, we attend the school of
righteousness. We learn what pleases God and what offends Him.
The moral law that God reveals in Scripture is always binding
upon us.
(Excerpted from: http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/sproul/threefold_law.html)
I want to focus on
the second use of the Law: the restraint of evil. This is often referred to as the
'civil use'
of the commandments. Who doesn't want to RESTRAIN EVIL? Christians,
most of all, should want to promote God's glory and because of the love
for our neighbor, protect them from the wicked. The Holy Spirit
declares:
"O you who love the LORD, hate evil! ...The fear of the LORD is to hate evil"
(Psalm 97:10;Proverbs 8:13) If the fear of the Lord is to hate evil,
what is preventing us from sharing the Law of God, which RESTRAINS EVIL?
David VanDrunen writes about the second use of the Law of God:
Of the three uses of the law, the so-called “
civil”
use may strike us as the least interesting theologically. It involves
no inward transformation of the heart or Spirit-wrought righteousness
that is pleasing in God’s sight. By this use,
the Law restrains
the sinful excesses of sinners through the fear of shame and
punishment, promoting an external obedience to moral standards and a
measure of peace in society...
Matched against her two
sisters, it is true, the civil use of the law has less curb appeal. Yet
a few moments’ reflection quickly reveals the folly of underestimating
its importance...
The civil use may not directly involve the
bestowal of saving blessings in Christ, but God wonderfully gives it an
indirect role in promoting gospel proclamation and saving sinners.
In
this article, I explore this civil use of the law and God’s generosity
in restraining unrighteousness in the world. To do so, I first discuss
how the civil use operates in bringing sinners to know and
(externally) obey God’s law...
How the Civil Use Works: Common Grace and Natural Law
The
pedagogical and didactic uses of the law involve the special saving
operation of the Holy Spirit in the elect. In the former, the Spirit
brings sinners to a true appreciation of their sin and illumines them
to see the gospel as the answer to their miserable plight. In the
latter, the Spirit utilizes the law to direct the life of redeemed
saints whom He is sanctifying. Things work differently with the civil
use.
The civil use involves the Spirit’s work of common grace.
Common
grace refers to general, non-saving blessings that God gives to all
sorts of people. Believers and unbelievers alike share them in “
common.” Perhaps the most familiar biblical verse describing common grace is Matthew 5:45, which says that God
“makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” The civil use of the Law is a work of common grace because it does not involve God’s special saving work among His elect.
In its civil use, the law checks and bridles sinners from giving full vent to their sinful desires. It should be apparent, then, that
the civil use is primarily for unbelievers.
Though they do not render pure obedience, stemming from true faith and a
desire for God’s glory, they very often render external obedience in
response to the restraining force of the law. But we also see the
civil use of the law at work in believers. At times we Christians
refrain from doing evil only because we are afraid of getting caught
and suffering for it, instead of from faith-inspired love of the good.
This too is a common grace of God, for it’s better to refrain from evil for the wrong reasons than to do it. But Romans 13:5, for example, shows us a better way:
“one must be in subjection..., not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.”
The idea of
natural law is also important for understanding how the civil use works.
Natural law refers to God’s revelation of His moral will in the created order as apprehended through the human conscience (Rom. 1:18–32; 2:14–15).
It is true that God’s law as revealed in Scripture can also serve the
civil use. Some people, without coming to true faith, hear the
Scriptures and try to conform to its commands, driven by a general fear
of God’s anger, social pressure, or the like. But most non-Christians
do not read the Bible or listen to sermons. Their knowledge of God’s
law comes primarily — or entirely — from the natural law. The natural
law is God’s Law, and through its testimony to His will and His coming
judgment it often serves to restrain wickedness and to work much
external good in society.
The creation and enforcement of human laws
supplement
this work of natural law. Human laws that forbid bad behavior and
threaten to punish it by the point of the sword can serve to restrain
wickedness in particularly effective ways. This too is the work of
God’s common grace...
The civil use of the law is a gift of God that should not be despised.
Through it God permits His people, to varying degrees, to live “a
peaceful and quiet life” (1 Tim. 2:2). Even more importantly, through
keeping order and protecting basic liberties, it allows the church to
gather peacefully and to carry out its mission...
Thank God for this common blessing of the law’s civil use. .. pray for its continuation.
(Excerpted from
Restraining Sin: The Civil Use of the Law
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/restraining-sin-civil-use-law/)
Let
us be faithful to use the moral Law of God in promoting obedience to
the command to sexual purity and to protect infants from murder by their
own mothers. The second use of the Law
RESTRAINS evil.
May we be faithful to preach, teach and counsel with the commandments
which prohibit fornication and murder, that sinners might fear the
Lord's holy wrath, both now and at the Judgment. It is my prayer that
God would be pleased to use the preaching, teaching and counseling of
His 6th and 7th commandments to stigmatize sexual immorality and the
murder of children by abortion and bring great shame to anyone who has
committed, or helped someone else commit, these great evils.
'So shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth;
it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.'
~ God (Isaiah 55:11)
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will never pass away.
~ Jesus in Matthew 24:35
Let My teaching fall like rain and My Words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.
~ Deuteronomy 32:2
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at My Word.
~ Isaiah 66:2
Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to My people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
~ Isaiah 58:1
Listen to Ray Comfort preach about the consequences of failure to use the Law in evangelism:
www.livingwaters.com/learn/hellsbestkeptsecret.htm
www.livingwaters.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=11:consequences-of-failure-to-use-the-law&Itemid=305&lang=en
www.livingwaters.com/learn/trueandfalse.htm
